


lie like you lie and love like you love

by NotLostAnymore



Series: low on self esteem so you run on Gasoline [3]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Fake AH Crew, M/M, Minor Character Death, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 07:51:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5198045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotLostAnymore/pseuds/NotLostAnymore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin thought he could have a life outside of the crew. He was wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	lie like you lie and love like you love

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after my fic "Learn to Romance" and "Jump On Board" but before "hello from the outside". I'm slowly building a Fake AH Crew verse without even realizing it...

“So… I’m pretty sure I have a boyfriend now.”

Gavin didn’t quite realize how much that one sentence would blow up his entire life.

 

He had first met Jordan Cwierz at The Old Queen. It was the only pub in Los Santos that showed real football – not the pathetic imitation of Rugby that Americans liked to pretend was football but the actual game the rest of the world recognized by that name. Gavin had no love for the word soccer, nor how Americans viewed it as a lesser sport. The fact he could only catch up on Premier League games at a single pub in the city really wasn’t ideal but he had learned to settle. Sure, he could always stream the matches on his computer but that just wasn’t the same as experiencing it with a crowd of others. Aside from making a hasty getaway from a dangerous heist there really wasn’t a better feeling then seeing Spurs kick Arsenal’s ass with a crowd of fellow Tottenham Hotspurs supporters around him.

Of the rest of the crew only Geoff occasionally joined him at The Old Queen to watch the Spurs games but the majority of the time Gavin was there alone which had led to him becoming acquainted with all the bar staff and most of the regulars. Jordan was one of those regulars. He always seemed to be there during the big Spurs games and had a wry smile on his face every time they scored – which was admittedly not as often as Gavin might have liked. The guy seemed effortlessly cool in a strange way which had caught the Brit’s attention. He wasn’t cool in the ‘popular’ way, more so that he seemed so comfortable in his own skin that he seemed to radiate a casual confidence that made Gavin feel almost awkward in comparison.

Eventually working up the nerve to buy Jordan a pint, Gavin found that he liked the guy even more than he’d been expecting. While they definitely disagreed on what the ‘real’ football was, Jordan was just as passionate about the game as he was and he listened as Gavin ranted and raved about all of his football woes for over an hour. It felt good to finally have somebody to talk to it about because Dan was always so impossible to get hold of while he was still out doing freelance work in Asia and the crew tended to laugh at him when he tried to talk to them about what they obnoxiously dismissed a kids’ game. Jordan didn’t though, he sat and listened and offered his own opinions until Gavin was pretty sure he had a new best friend.

 

"Why are you goddamn handsome?" Gavin asked one drunken night, his arm slung comfortably around the other male's shoulder.

Jordan just laughed it off but the blush didn't fade from his cheeks for a good hour.

 

The step from best friend to boyfriend happened fairly gradually over the space of a few months. Their meetings went from being limited to Spurs games to weekly drinking sessions at The Old Queen. Then they started hanging out elsewhere, catching a movie here or grabbing a bite to eat there. For the first time in forever Gavin had a friend outside of the crew and outside the world of crime.

There, of course, lay the problem. It wasn’t like Gavin was lying when he told Jordan what he did as a career, he just painted it in an incredibly positive light and completely left out any sort of evidence that might link him to the biggest crime group in all of Los Santos. Jordan was a nice guy, he didn’t want to scare him away before he had been given a chance to prove himself. Gavin kept telling himself that he’d own up to it soon and tell Jordan the truth but there never seemed to be a relevant time. Was there really a good moment to tell a new friend that you were actually a career criminal with more than a few kills under your belt? No, Gavin was pretty damn sure there wasn’t.

Gavin didn’t even realize they were dating until a young waitress stopped by their table to tell them that she thought they were incredibly cute together. This was some four months after their first meeting and they had grown so comfortable around each other that the idea of them being a couple did little more than make them giggle. That giggling turned into a joking conversation which in turn became serious rather quickly as Gavin admitted that he wouldn’t be all that opposed to being Jordan’s boyfriend. Of course, he still had his skeletons firmly packed into the closet but there was no need to expose them just yet. He wanted to see where things went with Jordan first before he started digging his own grave.

Things turned serious a lot quicker than Gavin had ever expected. Most of his time when he wasn’t working with the rest of the crew was spent with Jordan to the point that Michael had grown suspicious. In the same way he hadn’t been honest about his criminal life to Jordan, he had also kept his personal life a secret from the rest of the crew. He figured that while they were all friends, they were primarily colleagues and bringing his love life into discussion would probably be unprofessional.

Except pretty soon Gavin realized that his two worlds would have to somehow meet up soon lest he end up driving himself crazy. He couldn’t keep lying to Jordan about who he was, nor did he want to hide his relationship from the crew. So he burst, he told them that he had somehow belly-flopped into an unexpected relationship and he silently hoped that they would keep their teasing to a minimum.

The teasing never came. Their reactions were a lot worse than Gavin had even considered.

 

“Who is he?” Geoff asked, his voice already lined with a displeasure that threw Gavin off.

“Uh- his name is Jordan. He’s an artist, does some stuff for the paper. Got a few drawings in some fancy magazine one time too,” Gavin explained, not wanting to give away the fact that he had purposely hunted down said ‘fancy magazine’ just so he could have a copy of his boyfriend’s proudest achievement to date.

“Jordan who?” Jack asked, already sat at Gavin’s workstation as she typed in what was surely Jordan’s name. Gavin just frowned. Did they really feel the need to do a background search on his boyfriend who was by all means totally harmless? That seemed a little extreme.

“Jordan Cwierz,” he said after a moment of hesitation. He didn’t like the fact they were making him doubt the one person he had felt so sure about. Crime was a fickle world. You never knew who you could trust, no matter how friendly you were with other crews. You couldn’t always trust the people in your own crew either because at the end of the day most people were just in it for the money and if screwing the crew over meant a bigger paycheck then there were definitely people who would do exactly that.

Jack hummed in interest as she scanned the first few results her search found. “There doesn’t seem to be much on record about him,” she pointed out, casting a nervous look at Geoff.

“Where the fuck did you get a boyfriend from?” Michael spoke up suddenly, his laugh a little too mocking for Gavin to join in on. “Like… you’re the biggest fucking idiot I’ve ever met, how did you manage that?” Gavin tried his hardest not to be offended.

“The pub. He likes a bit of footie,” he said through a thin smile, feeling gradually more annoyed by his friends. Why did none of them seem to be happy for him? That was what friends were for after all, supporting him and all that soppy crap. Gavin knew that they liked to pretend they were above that but the truth was they really weren’t. They had bonded closer than any other crew Gavin knew of and he was beginning to feel like they were his family. He just wanted them to be happy for him.

“Of course he does,” Michael scoffed, turning away from him. Gavin cast his eyes over towards Ray who just shrugged. The Puerto Rican was a man of few words but his lack of jumping to Gavin’s defence left the Brit feeling slightly annoyed. Usually he could rely on Ray to at least play the middle ground, not sit out entirely.

“How long have you guys been together?” Geoff asked, narrowing his eyes.

“’Bout a month now? Known him about four though,” Gavin said, forcing himself to smile and act like he wasn’t as bothered by the round of twenty questions he was currently enduring.

“Hmm.” Geoff looked away and paced the length of the room before speaking up again. “And you’re happy with him?”

“Yeah. He’s nice.”

“Okay.” Then, silence. Gavin waited for Geoff to continue but nothing came. He blinked in surprise, rather stupefied by the experience. He should have known that it wouldn’t be the end of the conversation though.

He hadn’t seen Ryan walk over to where Jack was still pouring over Jordan’s info at his workstation until the man spoke up. “This is a bad idea,” a gravelly voice said from behind his skull-mask. Once upon a time Ryan had only worn the mask during heists and meetings with his contacts in the underworld but that had all changed after Ashley. He had grown even more reserved after that and the mask became a permanent fixture. The warm, dorky man Gavin had once been rather fond of had seemingly vanished, replaced by the cold Vagabond that had once been reserved for his enemies. “A really fucking bad idea.”

“Oh yeah, and why’s that?” Gavin fired back, suddenly defensive. Ryan scared him at the best of times because Gavin wasn’t an idiot, he knew what the man could do to people he didn’t like, but the Brit wasn’t about to stand by and let his relationship be disrespected.

“You’ll get him killed,” Ryan replied bluntly.

“But Geoff’s allowed to have Caleb?” Gavin asked incredulously. Was there some sort of vendetta against him, that he wasn’t allowed a relationship?

“Caleb can take care of himself,” Geoff piped up at the mention of his boyfriend. Gavin hated to admit it but he knew it was true. Caleb may have been a nurse but he also knew his way around a gun scarily well for somebody who claimed to hate causing others pain. That didn’t do anything to make the Brit feel any better about their current discussion though.

Ryan’s voice was little more than a warning growl from under his skull mask as he spoke again. “Relationships with civilians don’t work.”

“You mean _yours_ didn’t.”

The words slipped out before Gavin could stop himself. Immediately his skin paled a little and he placed a hand over his mouth, shocked that he’d actually said the words he’d been thinking. Nobody mentioned Ashley to Ryan, it was an unwritten rule. She had been caught up between a turf war between the Fake AH Crew and the Funhaus Crew a little over a year beforehand and had ended up dead as a result. Ryan had never stopped blaming himself but he’d certainly made sure to pick off the man responsible, one Lawrence Sonntag, just for his own satisfaction. The memory of Ashley had haunted him ever since and in a way it hung over the rest of the crew too. “I’m sorry,” Gavin mumbled, looking down at the floor so he didn’t have to look anybody in the eye.

For a few moments nobody spoke. Gavin imagined they were all too scared to get in Ryan’s way as he ripped the Brit apart but that never came. He didn’t even yell, in fact he sounded strangely calm when he next spoke. “You’re going to get that boy killed. Let him loose.”

Even in spite of his misstep, Gavin was still defiant. Drumming up his courage, he looked up and straight into the eye sockets of Ryan’s mask. “Jordan will be fine. Nobody but you guys knows about us, nothing’s going to happen to him. Just… trust me, okay?”

Ryan didn’t say anything. Michael and Jack both glanced at Geoff who just sighed and shook his head. “Whatever. His fucking funeral,” the boss grumbled, turning away from them all. “Poor kid.”

 

“I bloody love you,” Gavin murmured into Jordan’s shoulder one drunken night. Tottenham had finally won their first game of the season and Gavin was maybe a little too happy about that. The drinks had been flowing pretty freely for hours which definitely didn’t help.

“Love you too, moron,” Jordan laughed, pulling him in and placing a wet kiss on his cheek.

It would be so easy in that moment for Gavin to open up and he knew it. He could finally air all the skeletons in his closet and be done with it. Being honest with Jordan was all he wanted. Instead of opening up though, he just smiled widely at his boyfriend and ordered them two more drinks.

 

“Geoff. Geoff!” Gavin all but screamed as he barrelled into the crew’s base of operations. His heart was beating too fast for its own good and his vision was swimming. He felt sick and he was pretty sure his body was trying to reject its own being but right now the Brit didn’t care about any of it. “They’ve taken him, Live Action took Jordan!”

Once upon a time Gavin had almost let himself believe that Live Action Crew were his friends. They were all pretty laidback guys, even the two that looked like they were preparing for a body-building contest at all times. Brandon was awkward in a way that Gavin could relate to and Josh Flanagan had a way of making a person believe he really cared about them even if he really didn’t give a shit. They’d worked together with the Fake AH Crew on a few joint jobs before so Gavin had assumed there was no real bad blood between them.

All that had changed when he’d gone to Jordan’s apartment earlier that day and had found the lock busted open and a bullet wedged into the ceiling. The apartment was in all but ruins and Jordan was nowhere to be found. Gavin took the bullet as his only clue but it was a telling sign in itself. Flanagan had a very particular gun he liked to keep on him at all times and it fired only select types of ammunition. Nobody else in the city really bothered with anything more than the standard weaponry and ammunition available to all of them so it was everything Gavin needed to point the finger.

“What? Are you sure?” Geoff asked, standing up alert from where he’d been resting on one of the sofas surrounding their map of the city. Gavin threw the bullet down onto the map and Geoff scooped it up, inspecting it closely. “Fuck. Fucking _fuck_ ,” he grumbled.

“We have to do something,” Gavin said immediately. He didn’t know what the hell was going on but he knew it was his fault. He and Jordan had become so comfortable with each other over the past few months that he had grown sloppy at keeping them private. He shared pictures of them on social media, he hung out in popular city hotspots with him, he did things any normal boyfriend would. He’d never even stopped to consider it would put a target over Jordan’s head. He’d just presumed things would turn out okay because he wanted them to be.

A part of Geoff wanted to tell him they didn’t, that they had warned him that this would happen but he didn’t. Like it or not, he had always seen Gavin as something of an adopted son and if he cared for this Jordan boy then by extension Geoff had to care too. “Fine,” he huffed, immediately reaching for his phone to send out the call to arms. Gavin wiped the tears from his eyes, doing his best to act like he wasn’t emotionally compromised. He needed to have a clear head in the field but there was no way that was possible. “You should stay here,” Geoff told him half-heartedly. He already knew the answer before it was even spoken but at least he had tried. His conscious was clean either way.

“Like hell I will,” Gavin fired back with a hysterical laugh. Geoff just looked at him with sympathy. He didn’t want to say it but he had seen Ryan go through the same thing when Ashley had first started getting caught up in their messes. It didn’t exactly bode well for Gavin but this was precisely why they had all warned him against forming a relationship with anybody outside their circle. Caleb knew what crew life was like, he was prepared for it and he could look after himself in sticky situations without many complications. Ashley hadn’t had that and neither did Jordan.

“We’ll get him back, buddy,” the boss sighed finally, avoiding his friend’s eye as he spoke. He knew he shouldn’t make promises he couldn’t keep but he also couldn’t stand to break Gavin’s hopes either. He could never do that to him.

 

Jordan was being held in a small factory on the outskirts of Los Santos. Back when he had been with his first crew Geoff had utilized it but it had fallen between hands over the years and was now apparently under the control of the Live Action Crew. While Geoff had no doubts they had redecorated since his time there some fifteen years prior, he still had the old schematics and ran them by the rest of his team. He wanted them to be as prepared as possible but that was never going to happen when the mission briefing was rushed. They had no real why Live Action Crew had taken Jordan but Geoff had a grim suspicion that it was in order to get at Gavin which meant they were definitely walking into a trap. They couldn’t just sit by and do nothing though. Gavin would never forgive them for that.

Ryan was quiet throughout the entire mission briefing. Geoff could only imagine what the man was going through, seeing history repeat itself again. There was one stark difference this time though: Ashley had known what she was involving herself in. She knew that she was in a relationship with the infamous Vagabond and she had continued on nonetheless. Jordan had none of them because Gavin was too fucking stupid to at least warn him of the dangers of dating a high-profile criminal.

The drive to the warehouse was done at breakneck speed. The crew was split three and three, Ryan and Gavin riding with him while Jack and Ray travelled in Michael’s armoured vehicle. The entire journey there was silent but Geoff could see Gavin fidgeting in the backseat, teetering between rage and anguish every few seconds. Geoff wanted to say something to reassure him but what could he really say without lying? He was pretty sure that somebody wasn’t going to make it out alive whether it was Jordan or Gavin or whoever and there was no pretending that it was simply going to be okay. Instead he chose to drive in silence.

 

The attack launched without almost any hitches. Gavin and Ryan were tasked with retrieving Jordan from wherever he was being held whilst Ray gave covering fire from the upper scaffolding and Geoff and Michael gave support from the ground. Jack was covering the main exit and had the key still in the ignition of Geoff’s car if they needed a speedy escape.

Judging by the methodical planting of barriers and hiding spots, Live Action had been expecting them and their rushed attack. They’d barely blown the doors open before they were covering from a hail of bullets. Ray was able to slip away almost completely unnoticed to ascend to a better vantage point for his sniper rifle.

“Okay, Gibson and Marquis are behind the crates at your ten, boss,” Ray murmured into his comms device. Geoff aimed his weapon towards the crates and fired a short burst. A pained yell from the other side was enough to tell him that it had been a decent shot. “Gibson hit but not down. I repeat, he’s not down. Marquis is moving them both.”

Aaron had barely pulled Blaine out from behind their cover, seeking to hide deeper in the warehouse when another shot rang out and Blaine collapsed face forward as Marquis scrambled for the nearest cover he could find. Geoff turned to find Gavin’s rifle still smoking, a grim look on the Brit’s face. Gavin didn’t even look in his direction and for once Geoff was glad. They were all criminals, sure, but even Geoff didn’t believe in shooting a man in the back. “Gibson’s down,” Ray confirmed. Nobody said any more on the matter.

Jordan, of course, was at the very back of the warehouse. He was surrounded by Josh Flanagan, the crew leader, and Chris Demarais who was busy holding Jordan’s head under a small tub of water even as the young man flailed. Gavin moved his rifle to aim straight at Chris but Ryan had beat him to it and Chris yanked his hand back suddenly as a bullet skimmed the edge of his lower arm. No longer being held under the water that had been threatening to drown him, Jordan burst up, choking and spluttering from the water that had invaded his lungs.

“Go, go, go!” Flanagan yelled, grabbing Chris and all but hauling him towards the back exit. Marquis scurried after them, blindly firing shots behind him as he fled. One bounced off of the scaffolding near Ray’s head, causing the Puerto Rican to curse loudly. Gavin didn’t pay any attention though, he was already sprinting towards Jordan who had been left behind by his hostage takers and was looking around wildly.

As Gavin approached, Jordan shrunk away and scrambled across the ground to get away from him. “Hey, hey, it’s just me!” Gavin assured him, having enough sense to freeze and lower his rifle to the ground. He ignored Ryan’s irritated remark about lowering his weapon and instead focused on his boyfriend. Jordan was covered in a couple of fresh cuts and he was still shivering from the cold water he had been forced under but aside from that he seemed relatively unharmed at least physically. “Jordan, it’s me. You’re fine, I’ve got you.” Gavin tested his luck, taking a few steps forward. Jordan stopped trying to get away, finally letting his boyfriend reach him and pull him into his tight embrace.

“We should go,” Ryan said gruffly. Geoff hummed in agreement.

“I don’t like this.” He was right not to because barely two seconds later there was a loud bang from one of the support columns exploding. “Shit.” A low rumble started to build up, spreading throughout the warehouse. “It’s gonna come down. Move!”

Michael was already at the door Live Action had fled through, holding it open for them. Ray was first out of the door, sniper rifle slung over his shoulder, and Geoff stumbled out behind him. He turned back to see Gavin struggling to help Jordan up onto his feet but before he could take a step back into the warehouse to help, Ryan had grabbed Jordan and hoisted him up onto his feet.

They were barely all clear of the warehouse when it crumbled to the ground.

“You’re welcome,” Ryan grunted from behind his mask, pushing Jordan back into Gavin’s awaiting arms. It was only then that Gavin noticed the blood on the shoulder of Ryan’s leather jacket, pouring from the fresh bullet wound.

“When did you get shot?!” he asked incredulously. Ryan didn’t say anything in response, he just turned and walked back to Michael’s vehicle.

Geoff let out a sigh, kicking at the dirt beneath him. They’d all made it out alive, sure, but that didn’t mean they were all going to be okay. “Let’s go home.”

 

Gavin and Jordan stayed with Geoff that night. The Brit refused to let his boyfriend out of his sight and Jordan was clearly still shaken up from the ordeal so Gavin and Geoff both decided it would be for the best. Jordan had wanted to go home but that didn’t seem like a viable option. Live Action knew where he lived so who was to say that they wouldn’t come knocking again?

Caleb had fussed over Jordan when they had brought him back to the base and hadn’t found any sort of internal damage. No broken bones, no internal bleeding, nothing. He’d been roughed up a little, slapped around and nearly drowned while being a hostage but there was nothing to suggest he’d gone through anything more. Either way Jordan didn’t want to talk about it. He couldn’t even look most of them in the eye.

Ever since they had rescued his boyfriend from the warehouse Gavin had been asking himself why he hadn’t been tortured. It was a strange thing to question and he was sure as hell glad that he hadn’t but why not? It didn’t make any sense. The only reason they could have taken Jordan was to get at him but once they’d taken him, what had they really done? They hadn’t asked for a ransom or tried to bargain for anything, they’d just waited for the crew to show up and take him back. There was something going on and Gavin didn’t like it but honestly he was just glad to have his boyfriend back so he chose to focus on that instead.

They were both safely tucked under the sheets of Geoff’s master bed when they finally spoke about the truths Gavin had been hiding from him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jordan asked, the vulnerability in his voice cutting into Gavin.

“I just wanted something away from it all. You were my escape,” the Brit replied, avoiding his eye.

“Is this going to keep happening?”

Gavin hesitated. He wished he could say no, he really did. He knew it would be a lie though. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

Jordan was silent for a long time after that. Gavin didn’t pressure the conversation either.

Finally, almost an hour later, Jordan spoke again. “I love you—“

“I love you too,” Gavin cut across.

“—but I need time.”

Gavin had been expecting it, of course he had. How couldn’t he? His secret had come out in the worst way possible and that wasn’t going to be easy to forgive. If their positions had been reversed would he forgive Jordan so easily?

“It’s okay,” Gavin sighed, a sad smile on his face. “Take all the time you need.” And then, because he felt like he hadn’t said it enough already: “I’m sorry.”

Jordan hesitated. “I know.” The pause killed Gavin even more.

 

After a long debate, Jordan decided to return to his apartment the next day. Being around constant reminders of Gavin’s lies made him feel even worse and if he was going to take time to think about how this changed them he needed to be left alone. Gavin reluctantly let him go. He found himself staying with Geoff again that night.

“He’ll be okay,” Caleb assured him, handing him a bowl of warm soup in an attempt to get Gavin to eat something for the first time in days. “If you really love each other as much as you suggest, he’ll come around.” It was supposed to be reassuring but honestly, it only made Gavin feel even worse.

“Get some sleep,” the nurse said softly, leaning over to place a kiss on Gavin’s forehead before retreating to the bedroom he shared with Geoff. Gavin didn’t move from the sofa for the rest of the night.

 

He returned to Jordan’s apartment the next day and found it empty, not just of his boyfriend but of his prized possessions. The stuffed lion toy Gavin had teased him about so often was no longer sitting on the dresser. The bottle of expensive wine his parents had bought him for his twenty-first birthday was no longer in the wine cooler. The photo of them together was missing from its frame on the coffee table.

Instead there was a letter waiting on the bed. With shaking hands Gavin took it and read the single line scrawled on the paper: _I love you but I can’t do this_. He hadn’t even realized he was crying until wet splotches fell onto the paper.

 

After that Gavin became a totally different person. He was more closed off than he had ever been and somehow even more driven towards their cause. He worked faster, he was more focused and his kill number skyrocketed. The other side of that was that he became more reckless, taking on suicide missions with Ryan that neither was guaranteed to come back from.

Geoff and Michael were worried, of course they were. Gavin was clearly still hurting but he didn’t want any of their help so they didn’t say anything. Nobody had dared to utter Jordan’s name since Gavin had returned with the letter scrunched up in his hand. Caleb had attempted to broach the conversation a few times but had been shut down with a cold remark for even hinting at Gavin’s change in behaviour.

There were other changes too. Alliances with other crews became far less frequent as Gavin never trusted them. His relationship with Ryan seemed to improve too, even as a distance was placed between him and Geoff. In a sense, Gavin became the perfect mercenary but it was at the expense of everything that made him _Gavin_. Geoff decided that there was no way he was worth that and swore to kill Jordan for making him that way if he ever managed to find him.

 

Jordan didn’t forget Gavin easily either. He didn’t forget the good times but neither did he forget being taken hostage and the terror he had felt that day.

He didn’t forget the unfriendly visit from the Vagabond the next day either.

Hearing the knock on his apartment door, Jordan had momentarily frozen up in fear. Gavin had hardly been the most forthcoming person when it came to his double life but Jordan understood that he had a lot of enemies and they might try and get to him because of that. Living in fear wasn’t something Jordan wanted for himself but it wasn’t an easy decision to make either. This was _Gavin_ , the man he had found himself falling helplessly in love with for the past year.

Grabbing a kitchen knife as a form of protection, Jordan padded over to the door and glanced through the peephole to see who his visitor was. When he saw the Vagabond’s infamous skull mask staring back at him, Jordan felt strangely neutral. A week ago and he would have been terrified by the sight but he had seen the Vagabond working with Gavin and tentatively felt okay about opening the door to him and allowing him inside.

That all changed rather quickly.

“You need to leave town,” the Vagabond said, not bothering with any sort of formality. “Pack up your stuff and go.”

“What? I’m not gonna do that, that’s crazy!”

“You are going to _die_ if you stay with Gavin.” There was no room for argument in the man’s tone and Jordan knew that whether he liked it or not the man was right. All the evidence pointed towards him meeting a grizzly end because of his involvement with Gavin and yet he found himself fiercely standing his ground to protect his relationship. Los Santos was a dangerous place with the crews in a seemingly endless turf war, there was a chance he could die no matter what he did or who he loved. That was just the risk they all took for living there.

“I don’t care. I’m not leaving.” This was his home, where he had grown up and fallen in love. He didn’t want to give that up and be scared away even if it was by the most feared mercenary in the whole city. He didn’t want to die, of course he didn’t, but he didn’t want to stop living his own life either.

The Vagabond paused. Jordan wished he could see the man’s face underneath his mask just so he could have some idea of what he was thinking but he supposed that was the whole reason he wore the mask in the first place. It was hard not to feel intimidated in his presence. Jordan was easily dwarfed by the other man and he had no doubt then even unarmed, the Vagabond could kill him in a split second. The kitchen knife was really no comfort after all.

“Fine. If you don’t care for your own life then care for his. If you stay, you’re going to get him killed.”

Jordan hesitated.

“You saw him yesterday, he would have done anything to save you. He was lucky he even made it as far as he did. I took a shot for him.” As if to prove his point, the Vagabond pulled his leather jacket back to expose a bloody bandage on his shoulder. “Gavin lives a dangerous life but it’s ten times worse with you in it. Get out before you have to blame yourself for his death.”

“You’re lying,” Jordan muttered, not quite meeting the other man’s eye.

“Am I?”

 

Ryan only felt marginally bad for his part in the end of Gavin and Jordan’s relationship. He hadn’t wanted to hurt his teammate, he just needed to teach him a lesson. Once upon a time he too had thought that falling in love with a civilian was possible, that he could have the happiness as well as his job. Then Ashley had been ripped away from him, murdered in front of his own eyes and Ryan swore to never let that happen to anybody he cared about ever again.

The Live Action Crew had been easily bought. All he had to do was wave a large figure sum in front of them and they agreed to his plan. He’d had to cough up more cash after Blaine had been killed but that had been an unexpected turn of events. He had known that Gavin would be jumpy and desperate but he’d never expected him to become murderous. It was an interesting development and one he watched closely and curiously.

Getting Jordan to leave had been harder. Even after all of Gavin’s lies had been exposed he was faithful to the Brit to the point of utter stupidity. It had taken some further manipulation of Ryan’s part, making the man believe he could potentially end up responsible for Gavin’s death should he stay. Eventually he was won over and packed up his stuff, leaving Los Santos for good.

Ryan watched Gavin change before his eyes, becoming the perfect crew member and a partner that Ryan could truly rely on. Gavin was ruthless in a way that Michael and Ray were too scared to be and distant enough from his emotions to make the decisions that Geoff and Jack wouldn’t. Through teaching Gavin a lesson about relationships, Ryan had found the perfect partner and he didn’t regret it for the world.

 

It took time for Gavin to come back to himself. Years, even. Slowly he began to heal, his smiles getting wider and his laughs louder. Jordan was still never talked about but Gavin started to feel okay about letting people back into his life, even if it was never quite as close as before. The wounds never completely healed but they didn’t hurt any more either.

By that time their crew had expanded and they had welcomed in a new group of freelancers. Michael and Ryan didn’t seem to trust them but Gavin took a particular liking to one Jeremy Dooley. He was ballsy and funny and didn’t take anybody’s crap. He was a world away from the guy who had once stolen Gavin’s heart and that felt like exactly what he needed. Maybe it wasn’t love at first sight like it was with Jordan but it was something and he was determined to hold onto that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for spirithallow for being a sounding board and fixing up some of my poorly phrased sentences, plus probably beta-ing this.


End file.
